Twinkies, Hostess Snacks Back In Connecticut Stores

Walking down the aisle of the Walmart Neighborhood Market in West Hartford Monday, David Taylor brought his shopping cart to a halt and gasped.

Next to him was a display filled with chocolate and powdered mini-doughnuts, chocolate cupcakes and last but certainly not least, golden sponge-cakes with crème filling.

"That's right -- it's July 15," he exclaimed. And what does that mean? Twinkies are back.

After an 8-month hiatus, Twinkies snack cakes returned to store shelves Monday, made under new ownership and with a slightly different recipe that extends their shelf life by about three weeks.

Also returning are Ding Dongs, CupCakes and the rest of the Hostess snack family, now owned by private equity firms C. Dean Metropoulous & Co. based in Greenwich, and Apollo Global Management. The firms bought the brands for $410 million when Hostess abruptly shut down amid labor and financial troubles in November.

That was the last time Taylor, 44, had a Twinkie – what he called a "very long time." He guiltily admitted to stocking up on two boxes when he heard the company was closing.

And while two boxes doesn't sound like a lot, he adds: "I was the only one who ate them."

Taylor, who has been counting down to the return, grew up eating the different Hostess snacks as a child.

"My mom used to take us out shopping and get these for us -- probably just to shut us up," joked the Hartford resident.

In an attempt to get a jump on the expected rush, Wal-Mart said it stocked certain stores with Twinkies on Friday, with all stores in the contiguous U.S. selling the treats Sunday — a day early.

Across the U.S., Wal-Mart has sold about two boxes per second since the Friday morning launch, a spokesperson for the retailer said.

At Big Y World Class Market in West Hartford, however, only about three boxes of Twinkies had been sold by 11 a.m. Monday, along with one or two boxes each of Donettes and CupCakes, according to store manager Bob Leonard.

While local stores didn't have crowds stampeding, employees at the West Hartford Walmart store say they did get a call asking if the Twinkies were in.

Maryllu Ryan, 58, also stopped at the Walmart display to consider adding a pack of Donettes to the groceries she had to carry on her walk home.

Ryan, like Taylor, said part of the draw of the dessert snacks was the childhood nostalgia they brought with them.

"They were pretty big back then," she said. "You always had one in your lunch -- if you were good."

And while memories make for good marketing, Hostess has an ambitious new business strategy in place for Twinkies: "to be sold wherever candy bars are sold," said Hostess President Rich Seban.

"We want to capitalize on the nostalgia of the brand, but we also want to make sure we're relevant to this generation and not just the generations of the past," Seban said.

Twinkie marketers are entertaining proposals to sell the treats at sports stadiums, with continental breakfasts at hotels, at movie theater concession stands and on cruise ships.

The company also has plans to update its snack cake line to include products that are more appealing to younger consumers, lighter on the calories and possibly gluten-free. Don't rule out new treats flavored with peanut butter or packaged in bite-sized portions, said executives at Hostess.

The new Twinkies have some differences from the original tried-and-true formula that fans have come to know and love. The snack's shelf life has extended to 45 days, almost three weeks longer than the 26 days the former Twinkie was supposed to stay fresh.

But the return may be more bitter than sweet for former workers of Hostess. While the Schiller Park bakery once owned by Hostess is again making the cakes, the union is gone as are many of the jobs there.

That reduction mirrors the smaller scale of the whole Hostess company. When it is fully staffed in three months, it will have some 1,800 employees in the U.S., according to Seban. Previously, the workforce was more than 10 times that. The number of bakeries for Hostess products has slimmed down to four from 11 since last year's shutdown.

As for Taylor, who was shopping with his 14-year-old daughter, he didn't stock up on the snacks. Instead, he'll wait to buy them when he's alone.

"I do love them," he said. "But I don't want to be watched while I eat them."